• For decades, scuba and snorkeling aficianados have been searching for a low-effort way of increasing the area they can cover underwater.
Methods tried have included underwater powered “scooters” and “underwater tow sleds” (various things pulled underwater behind a boat). Some of these devices have found success, but there’s never been a real breakthrough product for controlled, easy, through-the-water propulsion.
• The breakthough came July ‘99 in the Sea of Cortez off Baja California, Mexico, when Tim Tunks created the first prototype of the Diveboard.
• Literally hundreds of divers have tried out diveboarding, as Tim developed the concept through several generations of diveboard prototypes.
The reactions of these divers? Everybody loved diveboarding! This new sport is easy to learn, empowering, and fun to do. The weightless freedom of controlled underwater flight makes this new recreation one that suits a variety of skill levels and the gamut of age categories. Tim immediately saw that diveboarding was a whole new sport and recreation...with the possibilites of explosive growth, like wakeboarding and snowboarding before it.
• Tim is an experienced inventor and entrepreneur. He has worked with Disney, Warner Brothers, and other firms on special-effects engineering and design, and for decades operated his own special-effects, theater, and lighting design firm, The Design Trust. Tim has dozens of Las Vegas spectaculars to his credit. He’s also an accomplished sailor, with numerous victories racing sailboats of various designs and sizes. For the past decade he’s been semi-retired, living on his 37’-foot sailboat, Scallywag, sailing up and down the west coast of Mexico. It was here, in the pristine waters of the Sea of Cortez, where Tim invented and refined the diveboard.
• Tim filed the patent application for his invention in September,”99, and began planing to bring the first diveboard product to market.
• A hand finished diveboard was first exhibited to the public at Surf Expo in Orlando, FL, September, ‘99, and then at the Dive Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) trade show in Las Vegas in January,‘00. Interest and enthusiasm about the product and sport were strong at both shows, and important industry contacts were made.
• An association was formed with Rotonics Manufacturing, Inc in Gardena, CA and work began developing two models of high quality rotational molded plastic Diveboards: first the one piece PRO Model R&R and then the two piece easy to stow MK II diveboard for the consumer market. Both models were ready for the industrial preview at SurfExpo 2000 in Orlando that September.
* Diveboards were then exhibited at a series of trade and consumer shows during the first six months of 2001: The Super Show in Las Vegas, DEMA in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Pomona and Orange County Boat Shows, SCUBA Shows in Long Beach, CA and Houston, TX, and the Fred Hall Fishing Show in Long Beach CA. More important industry associations were made and marketing plans developed.
* During that period, the use of Diveboards was publicized and promoted to the community of professional users; scientists, fire and lifeguard, competative free divers and spear fishermen, photographers and the dive tourism industry. This solid base of professional user experience has become an excellent foundation for marketing Diveboards to recreational users.
* July, 2001 marked the opening of the online store where Diveboards first went on sale to the international public -- exactly two years after Tunks first Diveboard ride!
* 2006 - US Pat. # 6,962,123 awarded to Tunks Watersports for the Diveboard.
